When it comes to baking, we all have our favorite recipes. Some of us like savories and some of us like sweets. Some of us like to experiment and do something new; some of us like to just follow a proven recipe.

If you think you’ve followed every recipe on the internet, you can discover many more recipes through various baking apps on the app store. Here are a few sample apps.

Baking Magazine App

Baking – Pies and Tarts

Baking at Home App

Baking Basics and Beyond App

Baking Step By Step Recipes

That’s all really great information to improve your backing skills and to discover new recipes. If you’d like to improve your efficiency, you can also download apps such as ‘Baking Converter’. These are especially helpful when you’re in the supermarket and trying to decide how much of quantity you should buy. You can also find apps that specialize in specific categories such as ‘Backing with Sourdough’.

Some of these apps are free and some of these apps are paid. So get your smartphone and search in the App Store for an app to suit your taste (no pun). If you can’t find the app, chances are there are many other people facing the problem. You can take the opportunity and create your own App by contacting an iphone app development company. Who knows, you might even earn a nice side-income by doing so.

After you’ve baked your favorite savory or cake, fire up Instagram and share it wit the world. You can also use other networks such as Facebook and Pinterest to share your favorites. These sites are free to use and it’s a very easy way to discover other people who have similar baking interests.

As with any other skill, the secret to baking perfection is doing it consistently. By every little mistake you make, you’ll learn how to become a better baker. Once you start doing it right every time, you can even contact your local bakers to become one of their part-time suppliers.

The Milk Bar Monday series is back! It’s been a little over a month since the bagel bombs, but a lot has happened in that month. Hopefully sometime in the next few weeks I can share with you all what I’ve been up to… but that probably won’t be until after graduation (scary!!!!!!)

This week our post is sticking to the savory side of things. We decided to do another Mother Dough recipe, one I have been eyeing for a long time, the volcanoes.

When Christina first describes the volcanoes in her book, she describes them in such a way that you feel like you have to make whatever these bread things are. Any bread item described has having cheese and gravy is on my priority list.

So the basic components of this delicious bread is the mother dough, deeply caramelized onions, scalloped potatoes and cheese. What you do is make a little pizza with a portion of the mother dough, spread some caramelized onions over the dough, top with a square of scalloped potatoes then cover it all completely with the dough. After that cut a little X in the top, stuff some cheese inside and bake.

No big deal, right? Trust me… Not as bad of a recipe as it sounds, but it does take a little time so don’t try and pack it all into one day.

This week we are bringing back one of my favorite milk bar recipes, the mother dough.

We first introduced the mother dough when we made the cinnamon bun pie. It got mixed reviews from our crew, but I loved it.

I have been dying to make more of Tosi creations with the mother dough, and we finally got back around to it!

Today we are making Momofuku’s Everything Bagel Bombs with the Bacon, Scallion Cream Cheese Plugs.

…Yes, I know plugs isn’t the most attractive name for a food but just go with it for now.

Before I made my bagel bombs I looked up what The Amateur Gourmet said about his experience making them.
He raved. This raised my hopes for the bagel bombs even higher! These things needed to be … the bomb.

The consensus among the Milk Bar Monday group – utterly delicious. A few of us even chose to eat instead of photograph the majority of them.

Not a fan of bagels? Or cream cheese? Don’t run away so fast. Even my cream cheese hating boyfriend scarfed one down straight out of the oven. That’s saying something.
Don’t forget to check out everyone else bagel bombs!
Krissy @ Krissy’s Creations Audra @ The Baker Chick Cassie @ Bake Your Day
Watch the Bagel Bomb steps in the Vine I made yesterday! Click Here.

You can check out all of our past Milk Bar Monday recipes on my Pinterest Board

Happy Monday! The Milk Bar Monday ladies are back at it this week and have a special recipe for you (and our last Milk Bar cookie recipe!) the blueberries and cream cookies.

I first tried the blueberries and cream cookie when I was in NYC in September. I dragged my family to the location in midtown to fulfill my Milk Bar dreams.

While in the actual store I decided to make it worth my while. I got one of each cookie available (the blueberries & cream, compost, corn, and cornflake), a slice of crack pie and a cup of the kaffir lime and caramel soft serve… I wasn’t holding anything back.

I was excited to see what Christina’s cookies were like, especially the blueberries & cream one. Honestly, I wasn’t crazy about it. And that turned out to be what the entire family thought.

The MBM ladies and I had a similar discussion over email about our favorite cookies. Some favored the chocolate, some the corn, and others voted for the compost. I think my absolute favorite cookies we’ve made from the book are the corn, chocolate and cornflake-marshmallow.

I thought the homemade blueberries & cream cookies were much better than the ones I bought in NYC. Maybe it was because I added extra milk crumbs, or maybe because I was able to make them crunchy around the edges. Or maybe the one I bought had been sitting around for a few days. Either way I was happy with my results.

A few notes on my process:

I made these when I visited my home this weekend which meant 2 things. 1 – I wasn’t able to use bread flour. 2 – I was able to bake in a convection oven.

The bread flour would have probably made a slight difference in the texture of the cookie, but I think you could use either type of flour and be ok. And the convection oven my mom has always bakes cookies more evenly than my apartment oven.

I ended up using blueberry flavored crasins because my local grocery didn’t have dried blueberries … and I wasn’t in the mood to hunt for them. The cranberries were super tasty leading me to believe you could sub almost any dried fruit. I think strawberries or cherries would be fabulous.

Hello everyone! Today I have my friend Addie here with a delicious guest post. Don’t forget to stop by her site, Culicurious.com to check out what I made for her! -BFB

Hi, my name is Addie Martin, and I’m the creative force behind Culicurious, a blog based on table-centered living. My main focus is recipes, but I also blog about restaurant, bar and travel experiences plus a little gardening. I’m thrilled to be here today sharing a recipe with all of you here at Big Fat Baker.

Since the new year’s upon us, many people have resolutions to eat better. I know that’s a constant goal of mine and something I am able to stick to pretty well…. most of the time! But every once in a while you need a break, an indulgence of sorts.

This recipe aims to fill that void – a strawberry shortcake made with minimal sugar and whole wheat pastry flour. Plus it’s topped with a fresh basil whipped cream. It’s sweet and rich without being “bad for you.”

Let’s run through the ingredients and techniques and then get to the recipe. My favorite part about this dessert is the fresh strawberries. I live in South Louisiana and we’re already getting beautiful, sweet strawberries this season.

Louisiana’s temperate winter climate makes for perfect strawberry growing weather. Our strawberry season starts in late December and runs through the spring, around April to May. After that, it’s much too hot for the little beauties and we move into blueberry and blackberry seasons.

When strawberries are fresh and ripe, very little sugar needs to be added. My recipe here calls for only two tablespoons of sugar to be added to the berries. If you’re using under-ripe berries, you may need more sugar to impart the right level of sweetness.

The berries pictured above were sweet and delightful – hardly any sugar was needed. Besides sweetening, the sugar also acts to soften the berry and produce a sauce by coaxing liquid from the berry.

It’s the Second Annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap! This year our lovely hostesses partnered with Cookies for Kid’s Cancer & OXO to make the season a little more special.

Every food blogger that signed up made a small donation to Cookies for Kid’s Cancer. And for every dollar that we donated OXO matched dollar for dollar!

If you weren’t able to participate in the fun this year be sure to keep an eye out for it next year. It’s a great event!

Gooey Butter Cookies… Have you seen these before?

The first time I tried a gooey butter cookie was at my parent’s house. It took me all of 3 bites to become completely addicted.

When I asked my Mom where she got these tasty new cookies, she told me the local butcher shop. Uh…okay? Next time I went in, I looked around and sure enough I found a few packs of cookies sitting amongst the random spice mixes and bread.

I liked these so much I knew I could never make them … that would be far too dangerous.

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t make them for anyone else!

They are great for shipping to you friends around the holidays because [1] they stay super moist and chewy longer than most cookies [2] it’s easy to make any flavor!

That’s right. This recipe is so fun & easy. All you need is a box of cake mix, an 8 oz block of cream cheese, 1 stick of butter and an egg! You can substitute any flavor cake mix, and spice up the mixes with chocolate chips or extracts.

It’s time for another Milk Bar Monday. It’s a small one today – just Audra and I!
But that’s okay, we have a tasty new recipe for you.

Remember the apple pie layer cake I made back in February? Imagine that (minus the frosting) rolled up into a cake truffle covered in white chocolate. Just like those carrot cake truffles we made.

These were fairly easy, as far as MBM posts go. No new ingredients or techniques, just a different assembly process.

I was a little iffy on the proportions I was going to need, so I went ahead and made the full recipe of each component. You could easily scale each one back to half or quarters for fewer cake truffles.

The major difference between this recipe and the cake recipe is the way I cut the apples for the apple pie filling.

For the cake I recommend slightly larger chunks, for the truffles the smaller the better. The small apple pieces mixed in with the cake and cheesecake, but were big enough to keep their shape.

When rolling the truffles in the chocolate - be careful & work fast! I chose to skip the extra crumbs, I find that process strangely difficult.

These cake truffles are mighty tasty, so why not share with your friends? Make some for a holiday party, a cookie swap, or as gifts for the neighbors. Everyone will be happier with a little Milk Bar Monday magic in their lives.

DIRECTIONS:
In the bowl of your stand mixer combine the cake, apples from the apple pie filling recipe, liquid cheesecake, and 3/4 of your pie crumbs.
Mix everything together until 1 uniform mixture.
Roll the mixture into 24-30 even sized balls. Place them closely together on a lined cookie sheet, cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for an hour or two.
Melt the white chocolate or candy coating, mixing occasionally to keep smooth.
Dip the balls in the chocolate, then shake to remove any excess chocolate. You want a fairly thin chocolate coating. Sprinkle with a bit of the reserved pie crumb. Repeat with remaining truffles.
Place back in the freezer for a minute so the chocolate can harden. Serve immediately, store extra cake truffles in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

My final verdict, not so much cakey as cheesecake-y. If you want to have a more cake like truffle go for Audra’s recipe. If you want something a little more creamy and rich, try this version.
Either way you and your friends are in for a treat!

I know it’s be a little while since I’ve posted …school tends to get in the way of blogging… but when I received an email from Audra asking us if we were ready to bring Christina Tosi back into our lives, I couldn’t resist.

As I’m sure you know by now, the Momofuku Milk Bar is one of my all time favorite cookbooks and the group we have created around it is totally awesome!

So I’m happy to say that we are back at it, and as a result you will have more wonderful Milk Bar recipes to taunt your tastebuds.

Jacqueline eased us back in with her recipe choice, Tosi’s take on a delicious Peanut Butter Cookie.
As it goes, Tosi couldn’t leave this as just any old cookie… So this peanut butter cookie is flaked with pulverized peanut brittle.

I was a little nervous about the brittle, but it is much easier than it seems so please DO NOT pass up these cookies because of the brittle! You can do it!
Here’s a little step by step of what my brittle making process looked like…

My final cookie product was delicious, but slightly over baked and ugly. My bad.

The other girls said they had great success with their cookies, so I am bound & determined to try this one again.

A few months ago when some of us in the Milk Bar Monday group heard our friend Krissy was pregnant, we decided to plan a little virtual baby shower for her.

Since Krissy is having a boy and her husband is a baseball player we all tried to find some cute ways to incorporate those things.

I went with blueberries. And yes, I know blueberries are not exactly blue but I think you get the idea.

The punch is an easy basic recipe that can be adjusted by using different fruits, herbs, or teas. You could also switch out the soda water for champagne and serve this like you would a mimosa.

I recommend using a fruity tea that matches the blueberries, or what ever other fruit you may choose. I went with the blueberry kona pop from Teavana. It’s a fragrant rooibos-herbal tea blend that is caffeine free and safe for everyone!